The History
The Prehistoric Ages The Age of Myths Proud of their creation, the Six drew more and more strength from the Conduit, exercising their power to great heights. During this time, they exploited their newfound strength, creating immensely powerful races and beings known collectively now as the Uridamon. These beings advanced to great heights, populating every nook of the world and growing to understand the gifts the Six had given to them. They practiced in forgotten magics that stretched the fabric of reality thin and they came to understand the greater mysteries of the universe. However, it was this potential that led to their downfall. The Uridamon, believing they could become Untethered themselves, began using the Conduit’s power to free themselves from its bond. The Gods saw this as a subversion of the gifts they had given to their creations, and believed that if more spirits were to be freed from the Conduit that it would upset the universal balance they had ensured. The Six Untethered planned to punish the Uridamon and steal away the gifts that gave them their power. However, before this could be done, a previously unknown entity from within the darkness of the Astral Sea was believed to have made contact with the Uridamon, and promised them absolution from the Gods’ wrath should they serve it. Desperate to escape their doom, the Uridamon complied, ascending into the sky and losing their bond to the Conduit, but ultimately losing their free will as well. Enslaved to the being now known as Nezinmus, they were granted immortality and great power, sparking the first and only Divine War in Petroloth’s history. The Divine War The Uridamon became thralls of the cosmic entity known as Nezinmus, who immediately set its sights upon Petroloth and the Six Untethered. Using the Uridamon as its personal army of immortal warriors, Nezinmus pillaged and burned the domains of the Six, constructing dark shrines that perverted the holy realms of the Gods. Desperate to stop the spread of the Uridamon menace they had created, the Six exerted the full force of their being to banish them to the ends of the Astral Sea, using the last of their power to create a safeguard for Petroloth that would protect it from the hungering gaze of Nezinmus. The Age of Return The Six, now weakened from the devastating conflict wrought from their own arrogance, set a divine order amongst themselves that would prevent such disaster from occurring once again. They set their sights again on populating the surface of Petroloth, planting the first seeds of modern life as we know it. During this era, it is believed that the first primitive humans walked the land in savage barbarian tribes and nomadic clans, uncovering what was left behind by the Uridamon forerunners. After centuries of growth, humans grew civilized, and the arrival of races such as the kenku and tykian were recorded. Now too weak to directly involve themselves in the affairs of their creation, the Gods took on a passive approach, appearing to their most devout in signs and visions in order to keep the faith alive. The Modern Era, a Timeline The 1st Age (0-750) The 1st Age’s beginning is marked by the founding of the great human empire of Heverok, which expanded throughout most of Aldriel and into Tenereign, now known as Gashgrom. Far to the west, the mystic kenku emerge from their mountain homes in Shavahs and found the Circle of Nir, the first known collection of mages and arcane knowledge in the Modern Era. To the south, the tykians are known to have formed into uncivilized swamp tribes. Toward the end of this Age, the empire of Heverok begins setting its sights upon the seas, and colonizes much of Shavahs, Eldyrn, and even Nozon, globalizing human existence throughout Petroloth. They are met with resistance in northern Shavahs and Eldyrn, however, when the existence of a separate line of humanity is discovered, the aasimar. It is during this age that the Unseeing are founded as a religious power at the head of the Heverokan Empire, spreading the word of the Six Untethered and the power of the Spirit. Meanwhile in Shavahs, the tykians discover a horrific menace believed to have been left behind by the Uridamon, a creature known in tykian lore as the Bog Hunger. The tykians split, as many of them flee across the sea to Aldriel, while the others attempt to secure their homeland from the ancient terror. Through the aid of the Circle of Nir and the kenku, the remaining tykians were able to successfully imprison the beast, who now is believed to lie beneath the swamps of Shavahs in exile. The tykians who fled across the sea meet with the empire of Heverok and they are originally seen as alien and hostile but are eventually given a place within the empire’s holds. By the end of this Age, it is known that Abdarium, who saw the order and structure of Heverok far too imbalanced for the sake of Petroloth, created the wild goblins of southern Aldriel. The goblins multiplied like insects, forming into savage clans that pillaged and destroyed much of Heverok, rendering it the fractured and patchwork land of feuding kingdoms as it is known today. The goblins continued their spree, spreading northward all throughout Aldriel like a disease until finally, Rykarn, the God of Order, took action. He gifted each leader of the goblin’s warbands with terrifying strength and cunning, but cursed them with a rabid tyranny and lust for control, creating the bugbears. For this reason, the goblins were kept from spreading further, now reigned in and kept in line by their new masters. The 2nd Age (750-1350) The beginning of the 2nd Age is marked by the collapse of the Heverokan Empire, which saw the rise of the tykian empire of Ixixi in eastern Aldriel. No longer under the jurisdiction of the Heverokans, the tykian refuge in Aldriel grows in power. Utilizing their cold and calculating views of war and territory, the tykians are able to easily conquer the nearby remains of the eastern human empire. To the south, the goblin clans, now under the control of the bugbears, grow to despise one another, waging bloody war after war over petty conflicting interests and territorial control. However, their goblinoid cousins to the far north recognize the new powers granted by Rykarn, and so the bugbears enslave their unruly brethren and rename the land of Tenereign to Gashgrom, founding many warring goblin kingdoms and turning the once beautiful land of Gashgrom into a barren battlefield. The remains of the Heverokan Empire feud with one another over control of the Sajan Sea, with family Houses rising and falling in a constant power vacuum. In northern Aldriel, the first known existence of the thri-kreen is recorded, who begin trading with the struggling nations surrounding the Sajan Sea as well as the bugbears to the north. Meanwhile in Shavahs, the Circle of Nir betrays their goddess, and in return, the kenku are stripped of their wings, ingenuity, and their ability to speak. Kenku civilization quickly falls into ruin, the once arcane and powerful people thrown to shambles. After the collapse of the Heverokan Empire, their colonies grow independant and divide in culture, sparking the founding of the theocracy of Netherest, the mountain kingdom of Geremond, and the aasimar kingdom of Illavyrum in Eldyrn. To the south, the tykians, now free from threat of the Bog Hunger, grow in power and found the mystic kingdom of Jakokaj, greatly influenced by their kenku allies. During this time, the myconids are discovered fleeing from beneath the earth, who take refuge in Jakokaj and tell tales of the “mind flayers,” strange beings on a conquest to devour the minds of creatures all across Petroloth. Not long after, the illithids emerge, forming small surface strongholds all around the world and waging great war with the surface inhabitants. After the illithids of northern K’vol make themselves known, the human kingdom of Geremond sends settlers to colonize the harsh and unknown land, much to the anger of the K’volan illithids, who utterly devastate the human kingdom and leave it in ruin. This sparks global war, as the illithids attempt to conquer the surface world at the behest of the Primeval Mind, the oldest and most powerful Elder Brain known to them. They are defeated, however, and it is soon discovered that the Primeval Mind was stricken mad by the whispers of Nezinmus, who fabricated lies and claims to the surface world for the illithids to follow and cause mayhem. The 3rd Age (1350-1875) The beginning of the 3rd Age is marked by the death of the Primeval Mind and the end of the Underworlder’s War. The illithid, now despised across all of Petroloth, retreat to their subterranean homes, attempting to forge ties with the surface in hopes of redeeming their great transgressions. In Gashgrom, the warring bugbear kingdoms are finally united under the tyrannical Overlord Noshkros, who founds the goblin nation of Orzuvar. In northern Aldriel, the thri-kreen learn from their Tethered brethren, founding the Grand Tauric Convention and bringing wealth and trade back to the warring lands of the Sajan Sea. The many feuding human kingdoms from the remains of Heverok grow in power, with the strongest nations collecting the weak and creating a somewhat more stable environment for humankind. In eastern Aldriel, the tykians of Ixixi forge no ties with the illithids, believing them a threat to be destroyed. However, they have slowly been losing the war, as the illthids of Yak’gi enthrall tykiankind and turn them against one another. In southern Aldriel, the goblin clans continue warring with one another, but with the decline of the Primeval Mind many of the goblins have taken to following Nezinmus and now kill in its name. This creates a bond between the uncorrupted yet barbaric goblinoids and the feudal human kingdoms to the north, with Nezinmus being a common foe that must be stopped. Meanwhile in Shavahs, the kenku take refuge in the wreckage wrought by the Underworlder’s War, assimilating the cultures of dead civilizations and perpetuating them through mimicry. In the south, a new line of isolated and nomadic thri-kreen is discovered, much less civilized than their cousins in Aldriel, but not hostile. The tykian nation of Jakokaj continues growing in power, creating alliances with the myconids and the kenku but keeping themselves distant from the illithids. In Eldyrn, the aasimar kingdom of Illavyrum recognizes that the Gods alone cannot protect them from the wickedness of the Uridamon and Nezinmus, and so the Circle of Nir is renewed, now a collection of archmages meant to protect the realm from threat of otherworldly attack. In K’vol, the illithids of Xothoth keep themselves distant from the rest of the world, but make amends with many of the nations they once sought to destroy. Illithids plagued with the whispers of Nezinmus are exiled to the isle of Nozon, repairing relations with the rest of the world. This Age leads to the current day, and has seen no reason yet to end.